Prolog
"Which is the true nightmare, the horrific dream that you have in your sleep or the dissatisfied reality that awaits you when you awake?" Justin Alcala
Black.
Red.
Twirling.
Black grass beneath me.
Red mist around me.
Black sky above me. Red moon inside.
Red.
Black.
Pain.
I woke up covered by cold sweat.
In the dark, the machines bleeped. Tubes tied me with their plastic fingers, violating my veins. Everything else was blurry. Pain in my side. I panted. I felt like throwing up. The world wobbled around me as I tried to get up in panic. I had to hide. My legs felt like cotton. No hope running, then. What were my options then ?
I still had some chakra, so I should be able to maintain my dôjutsu for a while. I needed a weapon and a place to watch the room while keeping an easy escape road. We hadn't done much strategy in the Academy, and the clan mostly focused on investigation and interrogation. I had picked lots of these techniques, though brute force summed most of it up. Hiding and waiting to strike weren't how it worked in the clan.
The opposite corner was perfect. I tumbled down the bed. I couldn't stand at all. My hand went to my bandaged side. The surged of pain cleared my mind. I was in a hospital. I was alive. I had been treated.
I had no idea what had happened. My memory was like one big black pitch. I was with Tekka-san, visiting Onii-san and Father. We had left the last meeting of the clan where I felt sick. Fugaku-Sama really had his plan to take the village over. Lots of clan members were looking at me expectantly. Since I was alone, I had been sent to live with relatives. It had been two months... At the time they seemed like a century. Tonight it was a mere blink of an eye.
The door sprung open. I couldn't manage a fighting stance.
"Get back on your bed !" the nurse shouted. "It's dangerous."
"Being killed is most dangerous." I croaked as she helped me up. "I must..."
"You're safe here."
"No I'm not !" I feebly exclaimed. "Someone tried to murder me ! He was..."
I couldn't remember a thing. A deep headache overcame what was left of my senses. I clenched my teeth. I would not whimper before a mere nurse ! Everything went black.
Red.
Black.
I look at this bizarre landscape. It has no end.
Black hills away. Red wind pushes my hair.
I don't know where I stand.
Red night. Black horizon.
I don't know where I go.
Black.
Red.
Red.
Black.
Twirling. Twirling.
My hands are black. My blood is red.
There's a black tree behind me.
There's a black bush at my feet.
There's a black katana in my side.
My blood was so red.
Pain was...
I woke up screaming.
The room was of a nice peach color.
The window and door frame were white.
The ceiling was slightly yellow.
The floor was a dark brown linoleum.
My sheets were of a warm blue.
I panted hard. I was alive. Oh, thank Kami I was alive. I opened my hospital gown to inspect the bandages. No blood seeping through them. I prodded the wound, relieved by the whiteness that surrounded me. Curly bangs darkened my sight. I immediately pushed the locks back. I needed light and colors.
"Are you alright ?" the nurse asked, jumping inside.
"I had a nightmare..." I muttered. "I just... couldn't wake up from it."
She ran a hand on my brow, checking if I was feverish. I straightened my stance.
"You don't seem to have any symptoms..." she said.
A pout wrinkled my lips : I was obviously doing fine ! Well it was a good thing she thought so. I had been attacked and I had no idea where Tekka-san was. I had to know where he was. Plus I should expect a visit from other clan members. I was affiliated to Mikoto-Sama, and I was the daughter of Uchiha Kagami : I was someone important. Not that it mattered to me, but I had to respect certain standards.
"Well, if you wish I can arrange a meeting with a Yamanaka clan member to check your mental health." she said.
"I thank you for your concern, but this decision cannot be made by me. I need the approval of Fugaku-Sama. What instructions did he left ?"
There had to be instructions, right ? I had been attacked at night, and this was dusk. I had been out for hours. People were surely waiting to visit me. Maybe even Itachi-Sama. I hadn't seen him in days. Last time I heard about him, the police taskforce was blaming him for my brother's death.
"U... Uchiha-San, I don't want you to learn it this way..."
My breathing fastened, and I stared at her warily. What was she trying to say ?
"Last night, the Uchiha clan was..."
The rest of her words were like a dream. I wish I hadn't heard them. Oh, kami-sama, I wish I hadn't. I trembled under my covers. Everyone was... Everyone had been... It's impossible. Such things couldn't happen here. Not within the village. There had been tension for months and multiple secret meeting at the shrine. But I knew my brother and Itachi-san had worked hard on settling peace between the clan and the village.
So how could they have all died ? It was impossible. I couldn't believe.
I wasn't thinking straight. I had to calm down, I knew, but it was impossible. My hands were trembling. I was about to break in a million pieces. The only thing that kept me whole was that the presence of the nurse. I would only show little emotion to her. I still was an Uchiha, and I will act like one.
The aid asked me generic questions about my dream, and I answered mechanically. She hadn't been trained in this field of expertise. I couldn't blame her for being limited. Then she inspected my wound, removing my bandages. My arms felt heavy as lead. It was hard keeping them up. I couldn't stop the shivers. I wish I wasn't so weak ! And then I saw the scar.
The medics had worked on it, I knew. Still, a thick red mark marked my side. I looked away. The nurse started to coax me, so I wouldn't panic. But right now my mind was blank. I could process nothing. I just kept my mind from shattering.
Later I would understand what she meant. The assassin had neatly plunged a katana between my fifth and sixth rib, puncturing my left lung and barely missing my heart. It seemed I had moved in a last moment, gaining precious seconds. I had been found hemorrhaging near the cemetery, plunged in a deep comatose state.
As she was about to leave, I asked the nurse :
"Could you close the curtains, please ?"
She smiled encouragingly. The dying sun was sending red rays inside my room. I couldn't stand them. She came back with a tray of food. She put it in my night stand. I wasn't hungry.
Later that night, silent sobs shook me all night long. I finally fell from exhaustion.
Black.
Red.
Red.
Black
Suffocating me. Chewing me. Swallowing me.
I want to leave but this is too hard. I can't moved, pinned to that dark oak.
I see the sword embedded in my chest. The suffering is atrocious. I painfully take my breath. It's gurgling in my throat. There was no one holding the katana.
This is not real. This is just a dream fueled by my memories.
But I still couldn't get out.
What could I do ? I had only woken up because of pain, but now I'm just stuck.
My struggle only make the sword move. I'm whining. My ribs are blocking the blade. I c couldn't move it out.
How can I wake up ? How can I wake up !
This wasn't real. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real.
Red.
Black.
Black.
Red.
Someone shook me awake. Almost jumping, I violently pulled the sheets off me to blind the attacker. Something was finally happening in this blackness. My opponent was curiously small, I noted as I threw myself on him. I quickly grabbed the fork on the nightstand, trashing the food. I wouldn't stop. It was killed or be killed. I had no strength at all. The pain in my side was excruciating, but it kept me going. In a swift motion I plunged the improvised weapon down.
My target wriggled and I missed it. I had been careless. I turned my Sharingan on. I wouldn't miss any of his moves.
"Die !" I growled.
"Yanagi-Nee, wait !" my target shouted, showing his face from under the covers.
I stopped my move right before scarring Sasuke's face. I gritted my teeth. Was I still dreaming ? Because if I was, this was a cruel dream. I couldn't stop the tears from pulling in my eyes.
"S... Sasuke-Chan" I cried disbelievingly. "You're not... You're..."
His arms closed around me. I heard the fork loudly clattering on the floor.
"You're not dead..." he muttered.
He was crying. He was crying. And so was I. He was real. He wasn't dead. We were the only ones left.
"Big boys don't cry." I muttered in answer.
I used to tell him that whenever his brother flicked his brow or delayed their training together.
"Promise you won't leave me."
"Yeah..."
I won't leave you. I will protect you. So stay with me.
Days went on slowly. After the nurses checked us for injuries, they moved me in the same room as him. Whenever I fell asleep, I would dream in black and red. Sasuke-Chan told me he had had similar visions, with the dying clan members. He told me Itachi had done everything. He told me about the weird Sharingan his brother had. I told him about the back and red land in my head. It was probably a Genjutsu as well, but why didn't it stopped ?
We were kept from going to school for a week. Sasuke-Chan was two years under me in the Academy. Teaching him about what he was supposed to learn distracted me from the pain. I had almost died that night. Sasuke-Chan had just been put under a strong illusion. There was something in this I didn't understand. I had been supposed to die. The way the assassin had acted towards me, and towards the rest of the clan meant it had been prepared. He probably thought I was dead, so he left me. It was a miracle if I had lived. My cousin had been left alive.
I hadn't had much time to think. We followed a quick therapy with Yamanaka Inoichi the head of Interrogation and Torture. It aimed to help us overcome our traumas and enlighten the whole affair. Everything accused Itachi-Sama. Yet, there was something bugging me in this whole affair. In the end, I was apt to go back to the Academy. They kept Sasuke a while more : his thirst for revenge wasn't good.
I couldn't stay in the hospital. I had to live. For both of us.
I couldn't believe Itachi-Sama had done all this. Not that he couldn't kill the clan. But I knew there was something more going on. Shisui-Nii had told me about the tensions between the clan and Konoha. And I knew there was something fishy going on. Ninjas were weapons, but I had painfully realized it when I had no one to protect me from the Elder's greed. No one but our Clan Heir. The policemen said it was because of guilt. They said it was to cover the fact he had killed my brother. I couldn't believe that. Onii-San was prepared to save Itachi from the Clan, he wanted to achieve their common dream : peace.
There was missing pieces in that story.I wanted to blame Itachi-Sama. I wanted to have someone to reject the fault on. But I was sure in these terrible acts, Sasuke-Chan, Itachi-Sama and I were victims. I would discover the truth behind it all.
My name was Uchiha Yanagi. The village hasn't finished hearing from me.
Hello everyone,
No I'm not dead, I'm just suuuuuuuper busy at the moment.
Why did I start another story instead of writing A Hero's Shadow ? Two reasons. For one the form of the text isn't good anymore. I was supposed to be regular short chapters, and because I was lazy/depressed at the time I slowed my writing pace and started making kibger chapters. After a while I had no time at all with my internship and my studies (I obtained my Economy and Management degree with a mention).
The second reason was the discovery of another story named Dreaming of Sunshine.Her story is gret and I suggest you go read it. BUT ! Her character, Shikako Nara is the twin of Shikamaru Nara, she hastroubles communicating with people, she uses explosives and aims to be a seal master... When I read that I had wondered about my own story. her character is similar to mine, and now that I have read her story, I'm afraid I'll copy some of its contents (unintentionally, I want to have my original plot). So I have to rethink the story I'll have to make Kagerou even weaker, almost a civilian and never let her attend the Academy. She would be more like a civilian/a princess to save (but absolutely disagreeing with that role).
I already had ideas for what would happen next, but they won't work at all if I make the necessary changes (they can take time). But I already had thought of another character that could follow a similar quest, and I wanted a more Uchiha-centered story. That is how Yanagi was born.
Yanagi means willow. Originally I thought of her as a weeping willow because of her curly hair covening her face when she's filled with grief.
Before I rewrite AHS, I have another project in mind after Will o' the Wisp. A Potterfiction (I want to try writing in another universe)
I love you guy's. Bye ! Don't hesitate asking questions.
Narsha